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Mancos Valley: Helmet Peak to The Knife Edge

La Plata Mountains & Mesa Verde National Park
Sunday – Monday, July 12-13, 2026

On Monday afternoon I was going to be meeting someone on Cedar Mesa, so I thought it would be nice to spend Sunday afternoon and Monday morning in the La Plata Mountains where I wouldn’t be too far away. A few weeks ago I was actually trying to decide if I wanted to spend this weekend in the Abajo Mountains or the La Plata Mountains, but the Babylon Fire ended up making that decision for me. After spending Saturday in the Gunnison Gorge it was much too late for me to leave that evening, so I went home, slept in, and then took my time getting ready to leave late on Sunday morning. After driving through the Uncompahgre Valley I left the smoky sky behind when I crossed over the Dallas Divide and then drove through a few much-needed rainstorms between Lizard Head Pass and Dolores. I stopped for dinner in Mancos while I waited for the afternoon storms to pass and then headed up Echo Park Road so I could hike to the summit of Helmet Peak, which is the westernmost peak of the La Plata Mountains.

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Plateau of Fire: Yellowstone National Park

Tuesday – Saturday, August 19-23, 2025

Up until about a week ago Diane and I were planning to spend the latter part of this week backpacking in the Wind River Range in Wyoming, however some things came up that prevented us from going on a longer backpacking trip at this time, so we decided to change course and throw together a last minute trip to Yellowstone National Park instead. Neither of us had ever been to Yellowstone before and I’ve certainly always avoided the park because of the massive crowds it attracts, but I guess it was finally time to give the world’s first National Park a shot. So late last week I reserved a site at the Bridge Bay Campground for three nights and then came up with a rough itinerary that focused on visiting some of the areas around the lower Grand Loop Road, entering the park via Cody and the East Entrance and then leaving through the South Entrance into Jackson Hole. I had never even thought about planning a trip to Yellowstone before last week or been this far north in Wyoming before, and I had to consult a lot of maps and guidebooks to help me figure out the layout of the park rather quickly so our itinerary would make some sense.

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The High Plateaus of Utah: Southern Trek

The Plateau Provence: Peaks & Plateaus of the Colorado Plateau, Part IV
Friday – Sunday, August 30 – September 1, 2024

After spending Friday morning visiting a number of rock art sites along the Old Trappers’ Trail in the Book Cliffs, I left the canyon shortly before noon and continued on to Ray’s in Green River where I stopped and had a burger for lunch. Afterwards, I topped off my gas tank and headed west across the San Rafael Swell into the High Plateaus of Utah for the rest of the weekend. After my recent Northern Trek into the the High Plateaus earlier this summer, I’ve been looking forward to getting back out and going on a loop through the southern plateaus including the Table Cliff, Paunsaugunt, and Markagunt, plus making a return to the Sevier Plateau so I could visit a new peak along the way. Now after this weekend I have visited the highpoint of all the major plateaus on the Colorado Plateau in Utah except for the Kaiparowits Plateau, which is next on my list!

Chepeta Lake: Eccentric Benchmark & Daggett Peak

Headwaters of the Whiterocks River | Friday – Sunday, August 9-11, 2024

After last week’s backpacking trip to the Red Castle Lakes in the High Uintas Wilderness I didn’t have any plans on returning to the Uinta Mountains anytime soon. However, after keeping an eye on the weather forecast around Colorado for the upcoming weekend, I couldn’t find a mountain range within a couple hundred miles of home that didn’t show stormy weather all day and night. It was going to be a wet and stormy weekend in the mountains of Colorado! I was originally hoping to spend the weekend hiking along the Continental Divide in the San Juan Mountains, but on Friday afternoon I made a last-minute decision to head up to the eastern end of the Uinta Mountains with hopes that I would be able to get some hiking in since the weather forecast for this area looked like the best around with only the typical afternoon storms. So for the second time in as many weeks I left from work and drove over Douglas Pass on my way to the Uinta Mountains. After a quick stop for fuel in Vernal I headed out across the Uinta Basin and then followed the Whiterocks River up to it’s headwaters at Chepeta Lake.

The High Plateaus of Utah: Northern Trek

The Plateau Provence: Peaks & Plateaus of the Colorado Plateau, Part III
Friday – Sunday, July 19-21, 2024

After spending two weekends exploring the High Plateaus of Utah last summer, I have been looking forward to getting back out into that high country again this year and thought this weekend would be a good time to do so. This time I decided to head up into the northern region of the High Plateaus and planned to start at the edge of the Tavaputs Plateau before making my way westward to the Gunnison Plateau (San Pitch Mountains) while driving some of the backroads in the area and visiting a couple new highpoints along the way. My timing for this trip couldn’t have been much better since the weather forecast was predicting very wet and stormy weather throughout the mountains of Colorado the entire weekend, while it seemed that Central Utah was going to be staying mostly dry, aside from the typical afternoon thunderstorms. Just like last year, I had a great time exploring this region and am hoping to get down to the Southern Plateaus later in the summer.

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Mancos Valley: Helmet Peak to The Knife Edge

Plateau of Fire: Yellowstone National Park

The High Plateaus of Utah: Southern Trek

Chepeta Lake: Eccentric Benchmark & Daggett Peak

The High Plateaus of Utah: Northern Trek